Car Insurance Cancelled Due to No Claims Being on Company Van

Legacy_user

Hi All

I wonder if you are able to advise on this - we had 8 years no claims insurance, then my partner got a company van which was insured by the company. He recently got a car and got it insured by AXA. However they needed a copy of the no claims, which we then sent. They have since cancelled the policy saying that no claims via a company isn't counted and they are unable to insure us. They sent the following email :-

This is to confirm that your insurance has now been cancelled.
To avoid you committing an offence under section 147 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, there are some legal procedures which need to be carried out within 7 days.
This sounds serious, but can be done very simply.
Please just click "Reply", ensuring that this original email is included.
Replying confirms you agree to all the information in the prepared statement below. It is your written confirmation of cancellation and fulfils your legal obligations.

Section 147 of the Road Traffic Act 1988
Motor Insurance Policy Number:
-
Policy Holder's Name:
-
Vehicle Registration Number:
-

I confirm that the policy to which the certificate relates has ceased to have effect as from the date below.
Date:
21/10/2010

Notes:
The use of this form means that your policy is cancelled. It will be deleted from the Motor Insurers' Database which is used by the police to enforce the law on insurance and if you use your vehicle without a valid policy, you will be committing an offence.
The declaration must be submitted to the insurer or the insurer's appointed agent within seven days of the cancellation date. Failure to comply with this requirement is an offence under section 147 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Now that this is the case, the insurance has jumped from approx £500 to £1000 for the year with companies who will only count approx 2-3 years as no claims..

Is this standard and can anyone recommend a good company to get car insurance quotes from under these circumstances please?

Thanks in advance...

raskazz

The van NCD belongs to the company and not your partner, thus your partner cannot use it on the car. How long ago was it that your partner last held NCD on a policy insured in his own name?

withabix

This is very strange.

The driving history 'belongs' to the driver, not the employer. It is used to measure the insurance risk of the DRIVER.

When I moved from 10 years driving Company Cars to driving my own car, all I had to do in order to get the 10 years no claims bonus was to get letters from the insurers of the THREE companies I had worked for, confirming that I had an accident free driving record and the 10 years would be honoured.

This is supposed to be standard practice across the UK motor insurance industry.

What did you actually send and where did you get it from?

System

It was a letter from the fleet manager which said "3 years no claims".
It wasn't from the insurance company, is this where we went wrong perhaps?

The letter says "The insurance is totally paid for by the company and no personal no claims bonus is used" This will mean a period of 3 years accident free I understand this may be used to provide Mr X with a no claims discount on personal vehicle isurance".

withabix

It should come from the insurer. Ask AXA what they will accept.

Mine came from the companies' in-house insurance services departments, as they were very large 'top ten' companies in the construction industry, which generally tend to have their own insurance team because they have very large car and commercial fleets.

System

Apparently they are saying it's because it's a Van and not a Car, very confusing. Might ask Axa what the problems are which mean they can't insure it..

Quentin

Summer01 wrote: »

It was a letter from the fleet manager which said "3 years no claims".
It wasn't from the insurance company, is this where we went wrong perhaps?

The letter says "The insurance is totally paid for by the company and no personal no claims bonus is used" This will mean a period of 3 years accident free I understand this may be used to provide Mr X with a no claims discount on personal vehicle isurance".

The letter writer misunderstands the whole issue.

You had 3 years driving without making a claim, and this was confirmed. But that does not mean you will be provided with 3 years NCD on production of the letter.

Your letter shows you have a claim free history (over 3 years) and many insurers will give you some sort of discount for this (ie your premium should be less than someone with no driving history), but to get actual NCD you have to have bought policies in your own name.

System

Thank you for the feedback, does that mean as the insurance was in the company name that you will never get cover the NCD? A few posts back an op mentioned they managed to get it by asking for letters from all insurers...

Also this is now three weeks later so does this mean the insurance company should not charge for those weeks if we were never covered?

Thanks for your comments/feedback - appreciated..

Quentin

As posted, you won't have "proper" NCD (as you didn't earn any via holding policies in your name).

But if you discuss this with a local broker, taking along with the letter confirming your claim free experience with the company van he may be able to get an introductory discount to reflect this experience.

But he will now need to build up proper NCD with claim free years whilst buying policies in his own name.

Having a policy cancelled like this is bad news (you may have difficulty now getting insurance elsewhere), so see if there is any way you can reinstate your policy.

System

withabix wrote: »

This is very strange.

The driving history 'belongs' to the driver, not the employer. It is used to measure the insurance risk of the DRIVER.

When I moved from 10 years driving Company Cars to driving my own car, all I had to do in order to get the 10 years no claims bonus was to get letters from the insurers of the THREE companies I had worked for, confirming that I had an accident free driving record and the 10 years would be honoured.

This is supposed to be standard practice across the UK motor insurance industry.

What did you actually send and where did you get it from?

Quentin wrote: »

As posted, you won't have "proper" NCD (as you didn't earn any via holding policies in your name).

But if you discuss this with a local broker, taking along with the letter confirming your claim free experience with the company van he may be able to get an introductory discount to reflect this experience.

But he will now need to build up proper NCD with claim free years whilst buying policies in his own name.

Having a policy cancelled like this is bad news (you may have difficulty now getting insurance elsewhere), so see if there is any way you can reinstate your policy.

Thanks Quentine. I'm confused after reading the post by withabix as this op seemed to have a completely different experience. It's a shame that having a policy cancelled this way could be bad - we weren't aware.

I'm not sure whether they will reinsure, and we've never had any problems previously - he had 8 years NCD with the previous insurer too (before the company vehicle)

lisyloo

If I was you I would just ask Axa to reinstate the policy even if it's without NCD, as it will be more costly (more than likely) with a cancelled insurance mark against you and a lot of insurers will not even quote you because of this.

I would strongly re-iterate this.
If has has had insurance cancelled then he has to declare this forever.
It will make it impossible to use a lot of internet quote systems causing hassle and mean other insurers will offer higher premiums or not at all.
This is a significant problem so he should get it re-instated pretty much at any cost otherwise he has a significant problem for life.

He has disclosed false information.
I think this was inadvertant as there was an honest mis-understanding but a cancelled policy because he provided false information will not be treated kindly by the industry.